Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Kentucky Rejects Dawgs

Hate to say it, but those guys were just better than we were. They might even win the national championship this year. Huge front line. Length at the small forward and shooting guard positions. They defended us better than any team I've seen this year. Other teams have pressed us to cause us to turn the ball over, but UK's half-court defense was outstanding.

With that said, I'm proud of the Dawgs for staying with it. I thought that Dustin Ware played a strong game. Ten points, five assists, zero turnovers. Jeremy Price scored 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 5 of 5 from the free throw line. JP added in 6 boards. Very impressive.

Travis Leslie got his shot blocked a couple of times. Don't recall how many, but Calipari obviously coached up his guys on defending him. If Leslie adds in a shot fake, showing the ball, he'll get to the free throw line more and decrease the chance of defenders timing his shot.

I still loved Leslie's fast break slam. As close to a dunk from the free throw line in live action that I've seen in a long time.

Other than the couple of nice dunks, UK shut down our two main scorers. Travis and Trey each went 4 for 13 from the floor, with 3 turnovers, and only 1 assist.

One of the telling stats from this game was that Kentucky's guards went to the line and Georgia's did not. No free throw shots at all from Leslie, Williams, Ware and McPhee. The other statistic that jumps out at me is the fact that they had 15 blocks and we didn't get any.

If Kentucky is making their three-pointers, and against Georgia, they shot a respectable 33 percent, then it will be tough for anyone to beat them.

We're 13 and 15 on the year, 5 and 10 in the SEC. Let's bounce back from this one, and beat LSU.